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This is an incident that happened in 2008 in Bangalore. It didn't happen to me but to a close friend of mine from my workplace. And what I am giving you is the 1st person eye witness account of ir.I had this friend from office "Samrit". He was a couple of years elder to me but still unmarried (I was too). He called me to his house to help him with his car. He had bought one about 2.5 years before. Irony was he didn't know how to drive. He had employed a driver for a while who absconded a few month ago. So the car was ln his garage for months together without being used.I had been driving since I was 18, and knew the basics of a car's anatomy. I went to his home, got the car started (after geting the battery charged). Samrit was happy. I told him he should use the car a little to keep it in running condition. He was like 'Can you help me with that?'. I said ok. And we decided to take the car to Mysore (about 190km / 4 hr drive from Bangalore). We took his car, me in the driver seat. We reached My sore at lunch time. Had lunch and it was time to return back. 'Samrit' got a little excited and conveyed his wish to drive. I said OK (it was his car, not that I had much choice) but only under he condition that he listens to everything I say and drives as per my instructions. Samrit agreed. He was excited, I was a little scared.My instructions were simple.Keep on the left most lane (that's the slowest lane in India) of the 3 lane expressway.Go at a speed <= 40kmph.Brake when I tell you toNo overtakingWear your seatbelts (this was not mandatory then)So Samrit started driving and I sat beside him with one of my hands on the hand brake (just in case). And I realized that as time passed by he started getting confident about his driving and would try to break the rules I had laid down. He surely hated the seat belt because it would poke him. But I was firm and he realized that. Only leeway I allowed him was to get at 60kmph (from 40kmph). We were still the slowest car on the road (cars speed at 120kmph and all on this road). We reached Bangalore in 5.5-6 hrs time. We reached his house, I parked his car (he was still not confident about that) and left home in my bike. All was well, Samrit felt accomplished.The week after that, another friend of ours from work (Anand) came to us and expressed his desire to go for a movie (after work) to a place called Marathahalli (East Bangalore). This used to be a God Foreskin place then. Commuters would get mugged almost regularly in that stretch of road at night. I was totally against the idea, but gave in because of coercion from Samrit and Anand.I landed up at Samrit's house after work. And we took off in his car. Within 10 mins, Samrit desired to drive. He was brimming with confidence from the previous weeks experience. I told him that city driving was way different from highway driving. And he will have to listen to me and follow all my instructions like he did last week and only then would he be able to make it. He agreed. And this time he was very sincere too and the traffic was crazy. We reached the multiplex where Anand was waiting for us with the tickets. He had come in his Honda City. We watched the movie. It must have been around 1:30 am when we left. Anand wanted to get a smoke and have a tea. So he headed for what's called the India Nagar flyover (now domlur flyover on the old airport toad) . We followed Anand in Samrit's car . Samrit was in the drivers seat again.Anand had sped much ahead of us, and when we reached he was already waiting for us with 3 cups of tea from the tea vendor (who was selling tea from a flask inat ached to the back of his cycle). There were a bunch of other people too. As soon as we went near Anand,, he handed one cup to each of us and then announced to us that he could not find a smoke here so he had to go somewhere else and Anand left.We finished our tea. (It tasted like crap) and got into Samrit's car. Again with Samrit on the drivers seat. I wish to mention here that Samrit had problems taking a U TURN on the right hand side.I asked Samrit to take a U Turn and follow the same route back home. He would not because he could not. My strategy was to keep him away from the busy city roads which wiuld be brimming with speeding vehicles ferrying BPO employees.Samrit responds to me -"tell me a route where I only have to turn left).Me - OK. Then take the next left. And please wear your seat belt.Samrit - No. Seatbelts is a discomfort. And it's not mandatory..I am comfortable with driving now. I drove back from Mysore itself last week. I am good at this now. I don't need a seatbelts.Similar conversation cotinues for 2-3 more mins.FinallyMe - Samrit please wear you seatbelts. Else stop the car right now and drop me here.Samrit - I can't do this while I am driving.Me - then stop the car and do it.Samrit - you ate such a nuisance.Me - fine I am. But it's for your safety.Samrit - finally puts on the seat belt wig out stopping the car. The car swerve's slightly but everything is fine within 2 secs. Happy ?Me - Good for you.Then we get into a simply lit road (Hosur Road from Garuda mall side). We are about to cross the Bangalore Military School T junction. The amazing thing about this road was that there was NO MEDIAN to stop traffic in the opposite direction coming onto your lane. Samrit was speeding unusually he was at >60kmph. I adked him to slow down but he would not listen to me. That's when Samrit spots another car in front of him. This fellow is on the right lane of a 2 lane road. And that's when the traffic light is turning from green to amber. And Samrit started a accelerating crossed 60kmph. It looked like Samrit wanted to overtake the car in front of him as well as cross the traffic signal before it turned red. It sort of became an implicit competition for him as if he had something to prove to himself and me.It was dimly lit if not pitch dark. We must have easily reached 100kmph. He was about to overtake the car in front of him, but that fell wouldn't give any leeway. So Samrit went even faster right on the middle of the road and that's when we saw a newly constructed median made of huge concrete blocks 2ft x 1.5ft x1.5ft. And it started only after the T junction (this was never there 10-15 days before). And as it was new it was not painted too. We went and rashes into it. The other car sped away without even being bothered about our accident.All this in a matter of seconds.We had ploughed into the median, broke 2 huge concrete blocks and 1/2 of 3rd one. So from 100kmph to 0 kmph in 1.5mtrs in 2 secs.Samrit had crashed his head on the steering wheel. I could see blood gushing out of his nose. He was conscious although in shock and was complaining of pain in the chest (a broken rib maybe).I had injured my left wrist (muscle trauma) and I felt a weird pain (like that of being squeezed by some giant machine) across my chest due to the strangulation because of the seatbelts. I was fine otherwise.I looked at Samrit again. He was fine. Just a broken nose. THE SEAT BELT SAVED HIM.It stopped his head from crashing into the steering wheel. It saved him from dying that day.It was just 5 mins before that I had insisted on him vehemently to wear his seat belt. What if he would have not listened. Lots of thoughts went across my mind.People passing by thought we were dead. At that time of the night I could only think of calling up 'Anand' who I was sure awake and only a couple of mins away.Anand did respond he came to the accident site, rushed Samrit to HOSMET hospital. Where we got to know of the broken nose. There was no broken ribs in the chest. It was just strangulation trauma.Anand also arranged for a crane from the Hyundai service station to tow the vehicle away to the nearest service station.By that time the tow crane arrived, I got some people passing by to help me out with pushing the car to the side of the road. I even had to manage some policemen who showed out of nowhere to enquire if there were any casualties (dead people).A weird night, a freak accident, a life saved.Samrit has never spoken about the accident to me ever after that. He got married and moved to Singapore. He has 2 children now. We are friends on Facebook.I moved to Dell 3.5 years back in the look out for greener pastures.Anand is a good friend still wit IBM. We came close after that. We talk once in a couple of months.Simple message to everyone. PLEASE WEAR SEATBELTS WHILE TRAVELLING IN A CAR.Godspeed.